Creatures of the night...

Last night when Ken and I (no scratch that), when I was watching TV and Ken was sleeping on the couch, I heard some odd sounds. It kind of sounded like rain, but different. Almost like fire crackling. I turned off the sound of the TV, but then the AC turned on. I waited until the AC shut off again. "Do you hear that?" I asked Ken. "No" he answered, but that was as effective as asking the wall, since he wasn't exactly aware...

It was a very eerie sound, kind of creepy. Finally I had to get up to see what the heck it was. It seemed to come from the corner over where the sliding glass doors are.

As soon as I reach that corner I saw what it was. On Sarah's art table in that corner we had placed her large butterfly habitat, and in it had for the last several weeks been an egg sack. This egg sack had now finally burst open! The habitat was shock full of hundreds of baby praying mantises! (Bönsyrsors).

Sooo coool! I kept watching as the little nymphs poured out of the egg sack, a pretty amazing thing to behold! I failed to excite the husband, he just kept on sleeping, missing the "birth" completely...

I know praying mantises are very ferocious carnivores, and if not fed they will turn on their own. The recommendation had been to free most of them and just keep a few. So I went outside in the dark and freed them, keeping about 5 for Sarah to see in the morning.

They were jumping all over the place! We didn't get the egg sack to keep them as pets, I actually got them for my garden, since they tend to stay within the area where they are born, and eat a lot of aphids and other harmful insects. So they are my pesticide system, since I don't want to use real pesticides.

This morning Sarah was delighted to see the jumping critters in the habitat, and we just let the last once go outside. They can grow up to 5 inches long when they are adults, but right now they just look like large mosquitoes. It was a lot of fun to see them, and I now know my hibiscus can be a bit safer too. A win win situation.

I took some cool pictures of the egg sack, but my camera has decided it is time to retire, so only a picture of one of the babies wanted to upload to my computer...

Baby Praying Mantis

An adult Praying Mantis

Sarah is home from school today, both she and I had a fever yesterday and still are. Nothing major it seems, just a bit of a temperature and coughing/congestion for her.

Easter Brunch

I have been calling around for days now trying to find a decent place for Easter Brunch. I am not willing to pay $98 per person(!) at the Ritz Carlton... Our go-to place is fully booked. Sigh...

Finally I fond a restaurant with reasonable prices. It doesn't hurt it is at a place we have been wanting to try anyway, and that they are on Bradenton Beach with a great view of the Gulf of Mexico! The Sun House Restaurant & Bar. Mission accomplished!

Spring Cleaning

I can tell when I work a lot, because I don't have much time to write much here! Yesterday I finally only had a few projects, so I decided Sarah and I needed a day of fun.

The days have lately been: wake up, go to school, come home, eat, get ready for bed , sleep. So she stayed home from preschool, and we took off to the big mall in Sarasota. Once there, we had a very nice lunch, just relaxing and chatting. After that we had tickets to go and see the new "Horton Hears a Who", which was very good, by the way. We have been reading Dr Seuss (click on the name to find out who he was in Swedish, most Americans are very familiar with this icon!) all week to get in the mood!

After the movie we did some shopping and then we headed for the indoor playground where Sarah played for almost 2 hours with two boys her age. They had a blast, and all that running around was just what she needed.

Tired but happy we then got some groceries and went home. It was raining pretty bad, but we had to take the dogs for a long walk, they had been home alone all day. So we wore our rain jackets and brought out the Bamse umbrella and went for a walk. We also brought some bread so we could feed the ducks. The dogs were what we call "rain crazy" when we got back from our almost 1 hour long walk. They ran around like they were on speed or something... Then we had a cozy night with home made salsa and chips, cuddling down in front of the TV and listening to the rain outside... A great day!

Today I am suppose to clean and do odds and ends around the house. I say suppose, because I am sure it will be mixed results on that. I have a couple of very good movies on my computer that are begging to be watched.

But I am also expecting two deliveries today. One is the dogs flea medication. I found a flea on Bob the other day, and if you see one, there are going to be more! Luckily he is almost naked on his belly, and his butt hair is very blond, and that is the area where fleas like to hang out. So they are easy to spot before they become a real problem! The thing with flea medication is that I don't use it regularly. I consider it a poison, and don't want it in my house. Plus, Bob has always been a sickly dog, so I don't want to put any harsh stuff on him unless I have to. And a flea on his butt means I have to. The stuff (I use Advantage) is pretty effective. But when I apply it I like the dogs to be freshly bathed and dry, and the entire house to be "flea sanitized" which means extensive vacuuming and washing of ALL blankets and other linens that might harbor fleas or their eggs... Luckily fleas don't bite humans unless they are desperate... so we are OK. But I think fleas are extremely disgusting!

Just listen to these dog flea facts:

A female flea can lay 30-40 eggs in just one day. When your pet gets fleas, eggs fall off the animal, wherever it goes in your house. In approximately three days, these eggs hatch into worm-like larvae that move away from light and downwards, usually deep in carpet pile. After 7-18 They spin a protective cocoon around themselves and develop into adults. Inside the cocoon they are almost impervious to insecticides. It takes between 5-14 days for fleas to develop inside the cocoon, after which they are triggered to hatch in response to vibration or the carbon dioxide exhaled by a passing host. But in the absence of a trigger, they can survive inside the cocoon for up to nine months.

Another reason why I hate carpet, it is just a big hiding place for fleas! And when you live in Florida fleas are a constant unfortunately... Here is a picture of the actual floor we chose, even if it is difficult to see the color like this...

Armstrong Colestone in Taupe

My SECOND delivery is of my highly anticipated Shark Steam Blaster. Now when we are getting all tile I want something better to clean our floors, and a steam mop sanitizes the floors with just water. And because it only uses water, the sealant on the grout won't be stripped. This particular model also comes with an array of attachments, so it have many uses, not just a floor mop. I found a great deal on it online! Normally it sells for $160, but you can found it on sale for about $100. I found one on iKitchen.com that cost me only $68 after free shipping and a 10 % off coupon! Not bad... For you living in Sweden I have good news, they have the same model in Sweden for about 897SEK.

So naturally I am expecting to be doing a lot of steaming all over the house today! It is suppose to be great to get into nooks and crannies you normally would have a difficult to reach. I can't wait to try it!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Städning

Får väl passa på och ta en bild som framtida bevis... Flickebarnet städar faktiskt av egen fri vilja för att hon inte vill att pappa ska behöva trampa på några leksaker när han kommer hem. Den omtanken kommer säkert att hålla i sig med åren!

Denna bild är dessutom ett praktexemplar på varför jag är enormt glad och förväntandes på att få nytt golv med start den 28 april... äckelpäckel till heltäckningsmatta!

Mycket jobb de senaste veckorna, och mer blir det denna vecka. Inte speciellt intressanta projekt enligt min mening, med det största projektet om "emissions chassis dynamometer" för en välkänd tysk biltillverkare spetsen... Yummy...

Windy Shopping

Today I was going to wear a new, swingy skirt I just got, but a quick walk with the dogs early this morning changed those plans... We have had some odd, stormy conditions here in Florida for a few days, last night there were some pretty severe lightning stuff going on. Today the wind has been sustained at around 34 miles per hour (15 sekundmeter).

So no skirt. I was up early and was showered and ready already at 8 AM. But I hung around and did some odds and ends for a while, and then Sarah and I headed down to the Sarasota Mall, which sounded like a good idea considering the windy weather. Finally there we shopped a bit at Victoria's Secret, great sale there, and a bunch of stuff at the Disney Store. After we were done we bought some food and drove over to Ken's office to have lunch. After all, it is tough to see him at all this time of year, he really is at the height of tax season right now.

Then home to some bookkeeping and a few movies. Sarah and I took the dogs for a long walk this evening, but it was pretty cold in the wind, so we kind of ended up jogging around the neighborhood. The dogs love it! Lucky for me they want to stop and sniff/pee on everything, my fitness is not exactly on top.. hrm...

So I am looking forward to a nice evening in. The husband just came home (hallelujah!) to work from home, and he came bearing gifts in the form of chocolate... And I have a stack of MI-5 DVDs from Netflix waiting after Sarah goes to bed. If you are looking for a good series to watch I can recommend the British MI-5. Great 1 hour episodes about the people who work at the British Intelligence service. Lots of action in this award winning series lovingly nicknamed "Spoofs" by the Brits.
Hope you are all having a nice, relaxing weekend too!

Picky eating

As I mentioned in my previous post, our daughter is an extremely picky eater. Before having a child myself I always rolled my eyes at the idea of a picky eater, after all, when I grew up you just had to eat what was served. Period. (I grew up with my grandparents, so tough luck if you didn't like it!)

It all started out great with Sarah. She was able to nurse for 11.5 months, which I believe personally is the best start one can have in life, even if I completely understand the women who chose not to nurse. With my self having so many health problems, I just wanted her to have the best start in life as I could give her. It did end up putting me in the hospital, but it was still worth it for me.

When I ended up in the hospital I had to go cold turkey on the nursing. Noooot fun! But Sarah took it like a champ! She started on regular milk with no problem, though she had some lactose intolerance at first.

When she had started solids around 6 months or so there were no problems. She loved all the different flavors I had her try, with the exception of the "mashed potato" baby food (it did taste like dirt, so I don't blame her a bit!)

She graduated to regular table food, no problem. I provided her with a variety of veggies and fruits, along with just regular food. Great! I love veggies myself, and I consider that to be a very important part of once diet.

Gradually she started to get finicky. Now we are at a point that I can make a very short list of what she WILL eat:

Whole grain bread with all natural peanut butter with added flax seed and 100 % fruit spread.
Wholegrain pancakes with light breakfast sausage or bacon with all natural maple syrup
Hot dogs with hot dog bread
Pizza with plain cheese
Baked all white meat chicken nuggets with ketchup
French fries
Apples (if peeled and cut up)
Pears (if peeled and cut up)
Grapes
Watermelon
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Orange juice
Apple juice
Water
Milk
Yogurt
Chocolate milk
Commercial cereal with milk
Granola bars and other kinds of similar bars
Healthy whole grain and fruit snacks
Whole grain bread with strawberry cream cheese
Rice pudding
Chocolate pudding
Peanuts and cashews
Pretzels
Snack crackers
Smoothies (we'll come to this later...)

And except for sweets, that is it! And sometimes she will even refuse some of these things...

So not much to work with here... I try to make the few things she does like the healthier varieties, but if I make it too healthy I also risk putting her off to that particular food. She almost stopped eating hot dogs because I insisted to serve only turkey dogs...

I used to have a secret weapon. She used to love the smoothies I made. I could cram all kinds of good for her stuff in there. Usually silken tofu, yogurt or Kefir, mixed with a frozen banana, frozen fruit (even the kinds she normally wouldn't touch), a dash of orange juice, whirl it all up and a super healthy smoothie! In the beginning I was also able to add veggie powder, but she soon developed a distaste for that. Now she all of a sudden can't stand the texture of a home made smoothie. The tiny little flecks of fruit in there almost makes her gag. So no more home made smoothies...

Then I had the idea to check out the ready made smoothie selection at the store. I know I myself have tried a few that were all natural without any added crap like sugar and what not. I bought a few different kinds, all chock full of good for her fruit. Yep! The consistency was more like thick juice, so I finally had a way to add to her intake of fruit!

But what I really desperately want her to eat is more (or should I be correct: any) veggies. There was one smoothie that I myself had tried and liked. It was green like spinach, so she might not even want to try it... I bought a small bottle. Put the smoothie in a dark blue glass (so the yucky green color wouldn't show so much). She loved it! Oh my God she loved it! She now drinks two glasses of this a day, which gives her so many nutrients she otherwise would miss . Sure it might be expensive, a small bottle being about $2.50, but it is so worth it!

If you want to try this yummy fruit AND veggie drink, the name is Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness.

The ingredients are: Apple, Pineapple, Mango, Banana, Kiwi, Spirulina, Open Cell Chlorella, Lime, Broccoli, Brewed Green Tea, Spinach, Barley Grass, Wheat Grass, Blue-Green Algae, Echinacea, Odorless Garlic, Tamarind Puree, Dragon Fruit, Lemon, Jerusalem Artichoke and Nova Scotia Dulce. Plus a few added vitamins and minerals.

They also carry all kinds of other smoothie drinks as well as other products. I am just so happy to have found something that has veggies in it that she likes! A small miracle for sure :-)! Now I will continue hoping that her pediatrician is right, that she will grow out of this phase of her life and actually start eating more normally. Eventually...

Forgetful dad

As you might have figured out by now, we have one of the most finicky eaters I have ever encountered! She is very picky about what she will eat and not eat, so to make sure she eats lunch I always send one with her on the days she are in school for the entire day.

But we are having a hard time making daddy remember to bring it inside when he drops her off in the mornings, leaving her very hungry since she won't eat what they serve...

Sarah is pretty good at remembering her lunch herself, but she is barely 5, so we can't put that responsibility on her. So I came up with the simple solution to put a sticky note on Sarah with the word LUNCH on it. At least he will see that when they get out of the car and remember to bring her food in!

Hey, if it works...

Not so evil neighbor !

One of our neighbors is a real busybody. Her husband used to be the vice president of the home owners association, and their idea of a fun evening was to get a pen and paper and walk around in the neighborhood to find violations they could report. For real! I often saw them pointing and writing. And of course that put us on the spot, as we got reported on every little thing: please mow the yard, there are weeds in the back, please trim your trees, there are palm fronds hanging down etc etc. So not too surprisingly we are not that fond of these guys. Just little things like that all the time. Our other neighbors are wonderful, and they have lived here since the house was built, just like the "evil" neighbor, and they never speak to them either, since it is the same story there.

In fact, to know which neighbor Ken and I are talking we always refer to them as the "nice" and the "evil" neighbor...

So this morning when I was on my way back from walking the dogs I saw her walking towards me. I figured she was going to complain about our grass, since it is in the middle of tax season Ken just haven't had a chance to get to it, and with spring just waking everything up I know it needs a mowing...

So I just tried to hide under my hat, pretending not to see her, but she was on a course straight towards me! Oh boy, I was gonna get it now! She told me she had some bad news about her husband. (He has been sick on and off for a year or so). He had all of a sudden died this past Friday, while they were driving! They had just been to a doctor's appointment, and he felt great, in fact, they were even planning a vacation. They stopped to get some groceries, and in the car on the way home he said he felt a bit sick, and maybe they shouldn't have fish for dinner after all... She replied that they could freeze it, no problem. He then said he was feeling light headed, and she told him to put his head between his legs, but he just slumped together and died! Just like that! She raced back to the doctor's office since it was close by, and the ambulance was their ein no time, but there was nothing they could do to save him. They aren't sure yet what he died from, could be a number of things.

But oh boy do I feel bad! I gave the woman a big hug and just held her for a moment. After all, we are all just people, and I feel very bad for her. She has just lost her life companion! We talked for a long time and I tried to offer her as much solace as I could, but what can you really say? I also made sure she understands I am here if there is anything at all I can help her with, or if she just wants to talk. Both their families are up in Wisconsin, so she is all by herself until her sister comes down in a few days.

It sounds like she is at peace with what happened. They had been very restrictive in their lives lately due to his illness, so she felt he was in a happier place now.

Here I haven't directed a friendly thought towards this woman during the 4 years I have lived here, and then in an instance you get reminded that we are all just people. I will try not to let grumpy or mean or otherwise not-so-nice people get to me in the future.

Maybe if I treat them as I would like to be treated myself it will somehow rub off on them and they will soften up. Who knows?

The 2008 Florida Strawbery Festival

Yesterday we visited the annual Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL.

This is a great American farm fair with exhibits of agriculture, commerce, industry, livestock, fine arts, horticulture, and crafts. We liked seeing all the different kinds of cows, chickens and rabbits!

The fabric of American life is woven into this festival through ethnic traditions, social events, competitive contests, youth developmental programs, top-name entertainment, parades with scores of glorious floats, and high-stepping marching bands.
The festival dates back to 1930 when members of the newly organized Plant City Lions Club conceived the idea of an event to celebrate the bountiful harvest of the strawberries.

Over 5,000 acres of strawberries are planted annually in Florida. There are some 2,600 farms in Hillsborough County (where the festival takes place, just north east of where we live).

One of the main events of the Florida Strawberry Festival is the annual scholarship pageant for the selection and coronation of the Florida Strawberry Festival Queen. Sarah got to take a picture sitting on the Strawberry Throne!

Sarah on the Strawberry Throne

The weather was lovely if a bit hot. We also enjoyed the annual pig race which was a fun event to see!

The field where the pig races took place.

Sarah and I also went on a few of the many rides at the Festival's midway. We even tried one called the Ring of Fire that scared the crap out of me! I pulled a muscle trying to stay in the ride, scared we would fall to a certain death... Sarah wasn't too happy about the ride either. Too scary! But she insisted to try , so...

The Ring of Fire Ride

We also tried the mandatory Strawberry Shortcake, which pretty much is a piece of cake (sockerkaka) with lots of strawberries and then topped off with whipped cream. The portions were huge, the picture below shows how much was left of mine AFTER I was finished eating!

My Strawberry Shortcake after I was done with it! Just imagine how huge it was!

We did get a bit sunbruned after walking around in the sun for over three hours, but it was lots of fun! And I really enjoyed not having stomach problems one single time! Awesome

Sarah and I taking a break from all the walking

Floor galor!

I had an appointment this morning at 9:30 AM to get an estimate. I have been working like crazy all week, so the house looked, well, less than clean. I woke up early this morning and did a mad dash clean. Nothing motivates you more to clean than having strange people coming over!

Well, she isn't here yet. She called and said she is running late...

I hate waiting around for people. I am myself one of those who is always too early. A pet peeve if you want. Don't like people being late!

After the quote is over I am taking the dogs for a looong walk, then dashing over to the place where we are having the birthday party to get some paper work that needs to be filled out, and pay $25 for the rental of the pavilion. Then off to get some lunch, eating it at Ken's office in between some of his client meetings. Then Sarah and I are off to Target to find the perfect gift for one of her best friend's birthday. Sarah told me he really likes Spiderman and monsters, preferably zombies, so hopefully we can find something nice that fits that bill. Maybe a zombie Spiderman?

So, a busy day. But at least the house is clean, and no laundry to do. Always something, right?

The weather is beautiful, should be in the upper 70s today (close to 30C). Oh, and the citrus is in full bloom, which smells intoxicating!

Enjoy your weekend!